


Welcome Home

by madamguillotine



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Charlie Dalton takes nothing seriously, M/M, except feelings, he knows feelings is serious business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23377681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamguillotine/pseuds/madamguillotine
Summary: Prompt: I came home from Christmas break and you ran up to me and jumped on me, I didn’t know we were this close. Wow! I missed you too? Love you too?
Relationships: Charlie Dalton/Knox Overstreet, Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Comments: 2
Kudos: 81





	Welcome Home

Todd’s father clapped him on the back, hard; hard enough to cause Todd a shock of pain.

“Let me know of you need anything, son!”

“Alright,” he said that there was a secret and silent “but don’t need anything” appended to the end. This would have ordinarily made him frown, but he was back here. Back to Helton. Back _home_.

“Okay, son. We’re going to try to beat the traffic. Have you got everything out of the car?”

“Yes,” he said distractedly, sliding the suitcase under the bed, back where it _belonged_. For all the rules, regulations, and classes it was _home_. His parents left; he went to the window to make sure they’d left before starting to arrange his half of their bedroom. _Their bedroom_, he thought. The bedroom he shared with _him._

He tried to put this out of mind for the moment, so he could concentrate. He arranged his desk set at his own desk, glancing over his shoulder to the empty bed and desk that Neil Perry would soon occupy for another year.

Once Todd had put his notebooks and his parents’ pictures in his drawers and placed his pens and pencils in the perfect place, after a few false starts, he decided to look for his family.

His first step was the shut door of Charlie Dalton. He heard voices inside so he knocked. There was the sound of shuffling for a few seconds.

“It’s Todd,” the shuffling continued for a few seconds.

“Enter!” Charlie called. Todd slipped in shutting the door behind him. They knew the rules well enough to know how to get around them. Knox was sitting on Charlie’s bed with Charlie tangled up in him.

“Welcome back to Helton!” Charlie grinned, mischievously.

“How was your winter-ow-break?” Knox tried to speak casually as Charlie tugged on his hair, knowing they had a brief time to really be together without their roommates and a full set of staff. They were determined to make the most of it, and judging by Charlie’s boldness, they already had been.

“It… went… as well as you’d expect…” Todd trailed off, shrugging.

“You have something for Neil?” Charlie asked to Todd’s bug-eyed surprise that he would just ask him such a flagrant question, “I mean a present, pervert.” He chuckled at his expression at the perceived meaning of his question.

“I-I got him a book… Is that a good present?”

“If it isn’t, you really don’t have a lot of other options!” Charlie said taking a long drag. Todd silently nodded, “Now, unless you want us to show you how gift giving works, I’d clear out,”

“But- “

Charlie smiled, a little sympathetically, “You mean to tell him how you feel with this, right?” Todd shifted from foot to foot but remained silent, “Why don’t you give him something a bit more… personal – not like that! I mean, something artistic! He’s an actor and you’re a writer. Make art so some day you can ‘make art’”

Todd’s mind reeled with the sudden rush of ideas and raced back to their room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He pulled out the leather-bound copy of Romeo and Juliet Todd had gotten him and picked up a pen. It seemed almost a sin to desecrate great words with words of his own, but he knew what he had to do. He began writing feverishly. Just a few lines. He barely thought just wrote what was inside.

The sun rose golden out of the drowning ocean of a sleepless night. Neil arrived early while Todd was in the shower, Todd re-entered the room running a nervous hand through his hair. Mr. Perry gave Todd a side-long glance. He recognized this conversation. He hadn’t seen most of it, but he knew it by heart.

“Call me if you need anything but don’t need anything,” Mr. Perry said with his stance.

“Why would I want anything you have to give?” He could hear in Neil’s balled fists.

Mr. Perry left with little fuss, no hugs or tears. Leaving them alone at last. Neil shut the door, and looked at Todd. He smiled, wryly, threw himself at Todd and wrapped his arms around him.

“I… have something for you…”

“Oh? I have something for you too,” Neil blushed. Neil never blushed.

They turned around; Neil rifled through his suitcase as Todd pulled out the book. The turned back at the same time, each holding a book.

“Oh… umm… who first?” Neil said, awkwardly trying to get Todd to take the book as Todd was doing the same thing, “Same time!” They each put the books in the other’s free hand.

“Open it…” Todd said, cherishing the expression on Neil’s face. Neil opened it to the first page. And read the inscription, aloud.

“There are a million ways to say it.

There are a thousand ways to show it.

There are a hundred ways to know it.

There are ten ways to display it.

But there's only one way I want to tell you:

I love you.”

There was a stunned silence for the longest minute of Todd’s life, to which he replied, most unexpectedly:

“Read mine.”

He read the spine of the book and smiled a little. He opened the cover and read out loud, very carefully,

“To count how many times I could say it

I want to tell you in the night-time

when the moon is nearly as bright as your eyes

and the air inside is nearly as warm as your smile.

I want to tell you in the morning,

when the world wakes to the brilliancy of your imagination.

I can put it on paper, but there's only one time I can really say”

Todd looked at it quizzically, “Say what?”

“I love you”

“Really?” Todd said, like he’d been punched in the chest.

“Do you- “

“I love you too!” he blurted out and turned away embarrassed, “We can’t… we shouldn’t… we-we- “

“Welcome home, Todd.”

“Welcome home, Neil.”


End file.
